CM2250, fuel leak mystery, please help!!

[jimeneztrans84]

(01-31-2018 )JMBT Wrote:  Yet another reason to stay with an 871 or older, huh!!

Jmbt you seem to not have any faith on cm2250 or 2350 motors... I think the cm2250 or 2350 is a great engine once you fix all the bugs on them and (demandate).... Just my 2cents.

[JMBT]

Jimeneztrans84, I have been a O/O for about 18 years, before that I grew up on a farm in middle MO and was around big trucks as long as I can remember. Grandpa, Dad, and Brother all were in trucking as well. I have owned 5 trucks myself. All that being said, I have never seen a motor as unreliable, unstable, and untested as the CM2250. It was based on an unproven emissions technology when they dreamed it up and they still 8 years later haven’t figured it out. Even after demandating, it is not meant to do what we are asking it to do because it was designed to run on EGR gas. So we end up with a middle ground half ass motor, that you better not push too hard or really try to work because of all it’s flawed weak spots. (For example to XPI fuel pump, time bomb disaster, or the low setting liners, or...etc.) I rue the day I sold my 871, also not a good motor in my opinion compared to the motors of old, the N14 and such, to “upgrade” to new technology.

I have driven and been around Cats, Cummins, and Detroits, mostly of the older technology and none have been such a joke as this CM2250.

My brother is currently running a 1999 model Cat 2WS, a 19 year old motor platform, the block literally has 2 million miles on it, and he has none of the reliability issues I have with a 7 year old motor that has 650K. Not to mention his turbos cost $1500 not $4450, injectors are $350 not $1000, and his fuel pumps are $900 not $4600. Oh and to boot, he is putting 720hp to the ground, on a daily basis, and the old cat takes it. If asked to do what his Cat has done for nearly 20 years, my CM2250 would choke, fart, and then die.

You are probably asking yourself why I own a CM2250 if I loath them so much. The one an only reason is unfortunatly all of my freight originates or delivers in the socialist state of California. And for some unforeseen reason the federal government has stood by and allowed California to openly impede interstate commerce, even though it is illegal, by putting restrictions on non-California domiciled trucks traveling on the interstate system, which they have no jurisdiction to do. So until that changes or my customer base changes I am fucked.....!!!

I hope for one of both of those things to transpire at some point in the future.

Sorry for the rant! To answer your question.....no faith in the CM2250 or 2350..... or really anything after the N14.

[Rawze]

(02-01-2018 )JMBT Wrote:  ...

Sorry for the rant! To answer your question.....no faith in the CM2250 or 2350..... or really anything after the N14.

I will take a 871 over anything older for the fuel efficiency gains alone. The gains far outweigh long term any higher maintenance costs if you take good care of the engine.

anything newer than this has zero gains in efficiency, but only has higher maint. costs and therefore is less profitable.

As far as them being "junk" -- ALL BRANDS OF ENGINES now being produced are like this or worse. All the engine makers have figured out one thing. Sell engines designed purposefully to be perpetually sick and keep the money flowing back towards the manufacturer non-stop. Cummins, paccar, max-force, detroit,... they are all like this now. Pick your poison, but only learning to work on it yourself is your only defense against this any more.

[smorgan87]

I like my 871 even with all the problems. The only real complaint i have is the actuator system that sometimes makes finding a misfire impossible. Also having to run an overhead everytime one of these old injectors gets tired of being beaten by a cam lobe is exhausting.

[Rawze]

(02-01-2018 )smorgan87 Wrote:  I like my 871 even with all the problems. The only real complaint i have is the actuator system that sometimes makes finding a misfire impossible. Also having to run an overhead everytime one of these old injectors gets tired of being beaten by a cam lobe is exhausting.

Adjust the overhead every 250k miles (or equivalent miles). When they are set properly, there is no issues.

[JMBT]

(02-01-2018 )Rawze Wrote:  

(02-01-2018 )JMBT Wrote:  ...

I will take a 871 over anything older for the fuel efficiency gains alone. The gains far outweigh long term any higher maintenance costs if you take good care of the engine.

Ya know, ...my brother usually pulls heavy 100-140K gross, but every once in awhile we will book something lighter and get to run across the country together.

The last time this happened, we were trucking from FL to AZ, we each had about 30K on so fairly light, we were running about 60-62mph, and really taking our time. Easy on and easy off the pedals. Me cruising at 1450 rpm and him at about 1200 rpm. At the end of the trip I was at about 7.4mpg overall, (per the dash) which I was happy with, and he was showing 7.7mpg (per his CAT messenger screen). Now all things considered. My truck is a bit heavier then his empty, and we all know that the dash display, and CAT messenger display are not completely accurate, he also has an 18 spd to my 10, which helps immensely with being able to be in the right gear. But I was still taken aback. His is a long hood W9, with massive air cleaners, and a huge flat bumper, pushing 20 year old technology, compared to my "aero" cab new technology Volvo.

The only thing we could come up with was with his massive horsepower and running at such a low RPM, he was just "playing" with the load. Where as I, with lack of gears and a bit heavier truck was having to work a bit on the grades.

It would be interesting to see, two identical truck chassis one with the new motor and one with the old, geared the same, driven the same, with the same load, in a real world test who would come out ahead on fuel economy. My "guess" would be tuned and driven properly, the old would be just as efficient as the new.

I just remember when I got "duped" into buying this 2250, the salesman saying, "don't worry about the cost of DEF fluid, these new motors get such great fuel economy, it will more then cover the extra cost."

[jimeneztrans84]

That's the same thing the salesman told me "don't worry about the payment, the fuel savings will cover it every month". Hah bull crap!!

[JMBT]

   Here is what I am considering to be the faulty part that was causing the leak, the line that runs from the rail to the injector supply tube, at least it is the only thing I could find that may have caused it. Notice how small the corrosion or fretting was, and not even really on the sealing area of the tip. Or at least that is what I thought. Some of the others looked just as bad when I did the initial job, but none have started to leak yet. I thought they all still seemed good, so I ran over them with the brass brush and re-used. We’ll see if any of the others bite me in the ass.

[jimeneztrans84]

So maybe not a bad idea to replace the fuel line when replacing or pulling off injector?